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NORTHERN TRUST OPENFebruary 15, 2012Jason GoreAndy WalkerPACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome two of our sponsor exemptions here this week. We have Andy Walker and Jason Gore here in the interview room at Northern Trust Open, teammates at Pepperdine. Maybe some opening comments about being together in the field this week and what you're looking forward to. ANDY WALKER: First I'd like to thank Northern Trust for extending this exemption to me. It's huge. It's a fulfillment of a lifelong dream to play out here on TOUR, to be playing with Jason. I stayed with Jason a little bit last week, and learning a little bit about the golf course and the ropes out here on TOUR has been huge. Jason doesn't know how much of an influence he's been on my career, positively and otherwise (laughter), but I look up to Jason a lot. I know you guys remember the 2005 year where he won every week it seemed like. That really kind of inspired me to keep playing and work a little bit harder, and I got a lot of kind and positive feedback from Jason about my game and to keep playing and stuff. So it's great to be playing alongside him here at Riviera, the Northern Trust Open, is awesome. JASON GORE: I'd like to thank Northern Trust, also, for having me and all the people involved in this tournament. It's a lot of work and preparation. I came here a couple times and saw everything in its skeletal form, and it's pretty amazing. Yeah, to be able to play alongside my teammate who's helped me through the years, golf swing, attitude, pep talks, mental beat‑up, it's just great that we get to tee it up in a golf tournament together, especially this one. So it's a privilege and an honor to be here. Q. For you, Andy, this is your first PGA TOUR event, and it's in a field with so many dominant golfers. What is it like to have this one be your first, especially right here? ANDY WALKER: It's awesome. Being in LA where we went to school, right down the street, it was an event that was always on my radar, one I always kind of admired, the players that were here and the field that's here, and I always wanted to play here at Riviera. On top of everything else, the venue is incredible, the golf course is in great shape. The first time I was on the Nationwide Tour, I remember going out on the range and being a little awestruck and going to some PGA TOUR events and being a little bit awestruck. Honestly it's not like that this week. It's nice to see the Mickelsons and Vijays and Freddies on the range, but I feel like I belong, so it's been great. Q. You've always said this is kind of like your personal major, this tournament. Is that amped up maybe a little bit more even this week because of the whole situation with the Twitter and how you got in and all that? And are you more exceptionally excited about this week? JASON GORE: Yeah, it's my first tournament of the year, and especially after‑‑ I've had a hard few couple years, had shoulder surgery last year, but yeah, this is my major. This is where I came out to watch golf when I was a kid. I mean, I didn't start until I was 12 years old, so I kind of knew what golf was, and I took it pretty serious. I wasn't like a six‑year‑old kid that was like, oh, big hill, I want to roll down it. I enjoyed coming out here with my dad, and now that my dad has been gone for 14 years, it brings back good memories of we talked about this shot here and this shot here. Yeah, this would be a tournament I'd love to add. I mean, it's at probably my favorite golf course to play, and it's just a special week, especially when the sun shines, unlike right now. But there's just a lot of great memories coming here, coming back to when it was the Nissan Los Angeles Open. It's just a special place being 30 miles from my house. And yeah, this is just‑‑ I can't tell you how excited I am to be here. Q. You get emotional being here. What do you do, this being your hometown event, once you get out on the course and start the tournament to kind of lock in? Do you stay closer to the course or stay at home? How do you get focused? JASON GORE: I'm staying at home this week. It's a good slap in the face of reality. Not that I would ever change it, but once I get out on the golf course, it'll be fine. I think now that I'm here especially it's a lot easier. I think knowing four, five, six weeks in advance, knowing I was playing, it's like, oh, my gosh, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. Now at that it's here, it's much calmer, no road rage on the 405 this morning for me, which is a rare thing. But no, I think now that the tournament is here, it's Wednesday, it's final prep, all the hard work is done, now just go out and play. But yeah, it's going to be hard to keep focused, especially looking out in the gallery and seeing a lot of friends and family and guys I went to school with, we both went to school with, all of us, to go out and just try to stay inside the ropes instead of staying outside the ropes. Hopefully the people will‑‑ the friends and family will not get offended if I don't run over and say hi. But it's back‑to‑work‑time. Q. Andy, can you talk a little bit about a lot of people know you from television show, "The Big Break" and all that, but a little bit about what you do, your actual real job and teaching and kind of some of the things you were trying to do with helping aspiring players? ANDY WALKER: Currently I'm teaching full‑time at the Legacy Golf Resort in Phoenix, working with everyone from eight‑year‑old kids to players like Jason. I have a couple Nationwide guys, some girls on the LPGA Tour, as well, Futures Tour. But the passion really lies in, just like the exemption exemplifies, is helping the diversity of the game and helping the game grow and giving access to kids that otherwise wouldn't have access at a top facility. So that's what I'm doing eight hours a day. But hopefully a couple made putts this week and we can change our job back to playing full‑time again. But my passion is golf. It's always been, and it doesn't matter what realm or arena it is. When I got done playing, I didn't know if teaching would be tough because I wasn't playing. I hadn't‑‑ since I was five years old all I've done is play golf competitively, so it was tough to say I'm putting them down, not going to play anymore. But the show "Big Break" kind of sparked a light in me again and got the competitive juices flowing. I played a couple times after that, didn't go to Q‑school for the first time in 13, 14 years. But when I got the exemption‑‑ I think really what this can do, a good showing this week especially, is open up some more doors, to not just inner city kids, to kids everywhere. I'm pretty tangible guy. You can go to the Raven in Phoenix, you can go to Legacy, you can go to a public golf course and I'm going to be there hitting balls and playing right next to you. So the exemption is really‑‑ it's bigger than me getting an exemption. I feel like it's an exemption for Bill, my instructor, and Jeff, who was my instructor for 14 years who's caddying for me this week. These are guys that have rode with me the whole way, and so on the playing end it's great for them, but at the same time those guys are still mentors of mine in my teaching. I use them as inspiration. Q. I was just hoping you could recount a little bit how Twitter and social media, kind of that movement happened, and just your reaction a little bit. JASON GORE: You know what, I almost prepared a statement for this. I almost just pulled out a card. The Twitter thing was a pure accident. I mean, I wish I could tell you I set the bar and was smart enough to figure all this stuff out. But that's far from the truth. I was actually just sitting in my hotel room with my wife in Hawai'i getting ready to Monday qualify. They had pre‑qualifying on Sunday. Usually they have it on Thursday, but in Hawai'i they have it on Sunday, so we couldn't go out to the golf course until noon. And there was a couple playoff games on because they come on at like 3:00 a.m. in Hawai'i. I was just laying on the bed watching football and I got the computer in front of me, and I go, oh, I probably need to sign up for Monday qualifying at Northern Trust, so I did it. I kind of asked her, do you think I should just Tweet that I just signed up and say how stoked I'd be to get a sponsor's invite? And she goes, "why not?" So all I was really trying to do was get in Northern Trust's ear. I didn't know if it was some 15 year old girl running the Twitter account for the tournament. I didn't know. I was just trying to let somebody know that, hey, I'm thinking about you, and you have no idea how excited I'd be to get a spot and basically how crappy Monday qualifying is. A couple guys, one of them is coming down here, Eric Magidson, and it turned out to be Paul Regali that we knew from Oregon, played golf at Oregon, and they just jumped on it, and then a whole bunch of people later begging‑‑ I wouldn't say begging ‑ begging is hard to do over a computer ‑ just writing in, Tweeting into Northern Trust, or @NTrustOpen, it was incredible. I wasn't about to add to it, I didn't go out there and say, hey, everybody vote for me. A Gore has already lost an election. It was awesome. Like I wasn't about to stop it because it was‑‑ like I said, after the two or three years I've had, I need all the little mental slap in the butt I can get right now, but it was incredible to watch. And like when they called me and said, "This is not about the Twitter campaign, this is on your merits," and I said, "I don't really care to be honest with you," and he goes, "We'd like to extend you the sponsor's invite to the Northern Trust Open," and I said, "no, I'm busy." I told him I wanted to play Bogota in week. He's like, really? I'm like, "no, absolutely not. I'd be honored to play." But yeah, it was a complete accident. I wish I could say I set ablaze thinking my brilliant social media networking skill, but no, I was just an idiot in a Hawai'i hotel room wanting to let somebody know that I was thinking about them. Q. Where are you physically with both your game and yourself, and then in terms of you mentioned you've had ups and downs throughout your career, how about the resiliency? How have you been able to keep pushing at it even those times when you're pretty low in the depths? JASON GORE: Physically I'm 100 percent. I had shoulder surgery last year, like I said, and it's the only part of me that doesn't hurt. I don't know how many more joints I need to have done. No, I'm down 40 pounds. I feel great. I feel like I'm swinging great. I just need four days to play. I've played great, Monday qualified, played well in Monday qualifiers and missed them, two by a shot, one lost in a playoff. To be able to do that, kind of go all out, all in on a Monday qualifier day and shoot some pretty good numbers, it's been good. But resiliency wise? I love golf. I love being out here. I can't imagine doing anything else. I don't want to do anything else. This is what I've dreamed about, what I've longed to do my entire life. You know, I'm trying to be, for lack of a better word, moderate‑‑ just consistent. I'd love to be consistently mediocre, which in that case, my consistently mediocre would be a lot of good finishes and a lot of wins. I personally feel that. I've got to take the highs and lows out. I'm kind of a high and low guy. But I definitely feel like I'm taking strides in the right direction, and I'm at the ripe old age of 37 now, so this is my time. This is the time to do it. I made a commitment to get my body right. Mentally‑‑ physically I'm 100 percent, mentally is always a little suspect. But I'm rolling with the punches. I love being out here. This is what I feel like I should be doing. Q. When you look back on the time when you had the success in the U.S. Open and then the weeks after that, that great run, how do you look back on that now, and was there anything that just clicked that you kind of look for when these days are on that note? JASON GORE: You want a really short summary? I made everything I looked at. I putted unbelievable, and that's‑‑ when you can stand up over a putt from three feet to 40 feet and you stand up over it and it doesn't go in, you're like, really? The hole looked like a peach basket. I kind of felt like Jeremy Lin does right now. The hole looked big, the ball looked small, and that was really about it. I wasn't thinking anything. I didn't have the aura around me. You're confident. Every time you step over a putt, it's like, this thing is going in. It's not even a question. It's just how am I going to celebrate, how am I going to fist pump. That was really the thoughts. It was a lot of fun. I can't wait for it to happen again. Q. How close have you come to that since 2005 over these last six years, just feeling like that with your putter? JASON GORE: Every day. Every day. I mean, it's always on the verge of falling in. You try to wake up every morning and just find that feeling, so every day is an opportunity for that to start, so you try to take it and take advantage of it and go, tomorrow, guess what, I'm tied with the No.1 player in the world and then you go peel it. That's the best part about golf every day. The golf ball don't care who you are. It doesn't care if you're John Q. Smith, 36 handicap. It doesn't know who's hitting it. So every day is a new opportunity to coming closer to being No.1 in the world. If either Andy or I go out and win this week, guess what, we're the best in the world this week. So we have a good chance. We may not be ranked that way, but until next Thursday we'd be the best in the world, especially against a field like this. CHRIS REIMER: We need one good college story from either one of you. Come on, give us one. ANDY WALKER: We both just thought of the same one, and we're not telling that one. How about this: The next before we won NCAAs, the third night, I don't know if you remember, we were in the room, me, you and Mike Walton and Mark and Paul. JASON GORE: Because we didn't have a coach that week. Our coach had chicken pox. ANDY WALKER: So he was quarantined to his room. JASON GORE: That's why we won. ANDY WALKER: So we're sitting there all nervous as get‑out. We had the lead in the NCAAs, and we're not playing until 2:00 in the afternoon the next day. I don't know if you remember what came on HBO. It was a Chris Rock special. So it totally took our minds completely‑‑ we were nervous. We were just sitting in a room like this, and it was like this. What are you going to hit on 1 tomorrow? Driver. So the Chris Rock special came on. I always remember that. Every time Chris Rock comes on TV, it kind of has a special place for me, and I remember we kind of laughed the whole night, and it was a great way to kill a couple hours. We didn't think about golf anymore, we just listened to a bunch of dirty jokes and laughed until it was time to go to sleep. Then woke up in the morning, listened to some 2Pac. JASON GORE: "You Can't See Me." I think we blew out the speakers. ANDY WALKER: That was the last song we heard before getting on the golf course, "You Can't See Me," and they couldn't see us. CHRIS REIMER: Sounds like you guys need to go to Blockbuster and iTunes and watch that tonight and listen to that tomorrow. Thanks for coming in, and best of luck to both of you this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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